


You Have Nothing To Fear

by myliege_theelvenking



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Flagrant Canon Bastardization, Foster Care, FrostIron - Freeform, M/M, May contain smut in later chapters, Mild Language, Surprise! Tony might actually be a good dad, Thor: The Dark World Spoilers, Work In Progress, adoption time!, domestic frostiron, passing mentions of Loki's kids, teenage runaway, well sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-01-19 23:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1487926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myliege_theelvenking/pseuds/myliege_theelvenking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Loki happen upon a teenage runaway one day while out and about in the city. Story takes place that night when she wakes up from a nightmare and boy does Tony know how that one goes. Thankfully, Tony's got some reassurances for her, if a bit unconventional. (No underage sex, I promise.)</p><p>Now being made into a multi-chaptered fic with plot and things!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Walk in the Park

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my attempt to expand a previous one-shot into a larger fic. This is my first attempt at writing a multi-chaptered fic (well, I have another half-finished idea in my Google docs, but that's beside the point). I debated on where to put this in the timeline so I've come up with a half-assed idea of it taking place after Iron Man 3/Thor 2. If you haven't seen either of these movies, there will be spoilers, so please give them a watch before continuing. In my universe, Odin has not been killed but sent who knows where and eventually found his way back to Asgard. Loki led them on a merry chase (hiding with a reluctant Tony Stark and hence beginning their relationship) but was eventually caught and hauled home for a trial and subsequently stripped of his magic and banished to Midgard. Tony still has his arc reactor, but he's retired from the Avengers. He still tinkers with suits because he's freaking Tony Stark and he can't stop. Pepper and Tony parted amiably, maintaining a friendship and she is still CEO of Stark Industries and has become almost an unofficial Avenger herself post-Extremis (mostly just in that she comes to a lot of Avengers social gatherings and doesn't get relegated to damsel in distress status when shit goes sideways.)
> 
> Some of this might get explained in bits and pieces throughout the fic, but I only touch slightly on it in this first chapter so I wanted to give some background so everyone's on the same page. Now with that out of the way, please enjoy. I'll try to keep up semi-regular updates, but I can't guarantee any kind of schedule at the moment. I'm aiming for once a week, though.

The day had been filled with meaningless nonsense, but just the kind of meaningless nonsense that was made meaningful by virtue of spending it with Loki. The fact that this was his life now--that he was living in domestic bliss with an ex-villain--still blew his mind and it took a lot to blow his mind. They'd woken up curled up in each other's arms, Loki's face scrunched adorably into his pillow until Tony had daringly stroked a toe along the arch of his foot and ended up pressed into the bed in a choke-hold with flashing green eyes livid and dangerous above him. So maybe that part wasn't so domestic. Loki had only relaxed marginally when he'd seen it was Tony, then his fingers had curled just slightly tighter in warning before he'd released him.

"Alright, so don't wake Loki up with a foot massage. Got the memo," Tony had quipped in a hoarse voice, earning him another death glare from the pseudo-god. The pseudo-god who was even more pseudo since Odin had stripped him of his powers in exchange for allowing him to stay on Midgard with Tony. There still had to be some sort of punishment in it, since remaining on Midgard was Loki's choice and not the banishment it was intended to be. Of course, being a Frost Giant and all, there was no way to completely rid him of his magic, as there was some part that clung to that heritage in a way that had made Loki laugh bitterly when he'd discovered it. "It seems my monstrous nature has become useful for more than freezing my enemies where they stand."

The rest of the morning had been notably more...well, boring, to be quite frank. Pepper was CEO of the company, so there were no stacks of paper to be skimmed over and scrawled with a hasty signature and Loki had a day off from his job as a... "What do you do at work again?" Loki shot him an exasperated glare. "I'm an archivist. I study and catalogue the items at the museum," he said coolly, clearly irritated at having to explain it again. Part of that irritation was probably at the job in general, given that had he had full use of his magic, he would have had the whole thing catalogued and labeled within a few hours. But with only enough to make minor shifts in his appearance (and only briefly) or other conveniences that lent themselves quite nicely to their sex life, it was impossible to scan the items for chemical makeup and quickly make all the necessary entries into the computerized system the museum had adopted in recent years. It was infuriating to work at mortal speed and Loki never ceased to gripe about it.

But it was a day off, so Tony had tinkered in the lab for a bit when Loki had reached for a book, knowing he was going to be awhile, before he'd gotten too bored without engaging in a larger project that would quite efficiently shut down any chance he had of remaining in Loki's good graces for the day, or whatever was left of them after the morning's wake-up call. Deciding that spending his night in the lab instead of in bed was not preferable, he came back up the stairs to find Loki drinking one of his complicated lattes (he tended to switch between ridiculously sweet coffee drinks and tea that was startlingly black) and rapping his fingers on the breakfast bar with a sense of impatience.

Loki looked up when he heard Tony's footsteps, still seeming to possess some of those Asgardian super senses. "Tony," and the use of his first name, and not Anthony, but Tony, sent a jolt of electricity right between his legs. "We should venture outside today. It has been some time since we've been to Central Park and I'd quite like to see that terrace you foolish mortals taunted me at when you sent me off to Asgard with my dear brother." They'd thought they'd been saying a final farewell and good riddance to him of course, but Loki was pretty good at playing at defeat when he wanted to. The aforementioned punishment was not even so much for his initial crimes against Midgard, but for his escape from the Asgardian dungeons and subsequent impersonation of Odin himself. But that was a story for another day.

"You keep saying mortal like you aren't one yourself," Tony reminded, sidestepping Loki's request for a romantic stroll in the park like they were actually a normal couple. Which, okay, to be fair, they'd kinda slipped into that whole domestic, normal thing, but still. Ex-super hero, ex-villain, though how "ex" either of them were sometimes seemed debatable. Loki glared at him. Big surprise. "Fine, yeah, just let me change or at least grab a jacket or something. It's a bit nipply out there." This time there was a furrowed brow and a quirked eyebrow in response and Tony smiled to himself at the slang that went right over Loki's lofty head. He'd probably pay for that smile later, but hey, if he wasn't living dangerously, his name wasn't Anthony Edward Stark.

When they stepped out of the elevator and then through the lobby to the outdoors, Loki was clad in a tailored coat that complimented his lean lines in an almost obscene way, but everything was obscene to Tony Stark, who had pulled a thick hoodie over his head, finger-combed the shaggy dark locks into suave disarray and then linked his hand with Loki's and shoved it into the god's pocket. There had been a look of amusement on the taller man's face, but then he'd squeezed Tony's hand like they were lovestruck teenagers and a giddy warmth had spread through both of them.

The air was crisp with fall, with Thanksgiving only a couple of weeks off. There were already plans for all the Avengers to get together for a potluck sort of Thanksgiving dinner and yes, even Tony was going to make something. He wasn't quite sure yet, and he wasn't sure that he wasn't going to just order something and pass it off as his own cooking, but they'd insisted that everyone should contribute no matter how poor their abilities might be. There was some hesitation about Loki cooking for them, as they still didn't quite trust him and if he didn't outright poison their food, there was no telling what kind of creatures he might just bake into a pie just to get a rise out of everyone.

The wind stung at their cheeks and made Tony shove his other hand into the pocket of the hoodie and hunch against the cold, though Loki remained unaffected. He probably thought this was a lot nicer than laying on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean, frosty asshole. As if sensing his thoughts, Loki cast a bemused look at Tony's pink cheeks and nose and now it was his turn to scowl at the other man. "Can it, Frosty." The pale throat was exposed as Loki threw his head back with a deep laugh vibrating visibly down his neck that was very nearly made a complete set with Tony's mouth attached to it. But he managed to restrain himself for dignity's sake. Meaning Loki would kill him if he tried it, since he didn't have any magic powers to just zap him back to the tower to finish what the engineer started. The biggest thing he had learned that Loki was impatient when it came to little things. He could sit and wait for a plot to unravel for weeks, months, years probably. But daily tasks and sex? Yeah, not so much.

The cold didn't keep everyone indoors, however, and there was the usual number of joggers and dog-walkers. Sometimes when Tony saw people with dogs, he'd get a momentary itch to get a pet. He'd never had a pet as a child because they were too messy and too needy and Howard Stark couldn't spare enough time to deal with a child, let alone a pet. It meant that he'd grown up very, very alone, but he'd learned to channel that into tinkering and ended up a child genius because of it. He realized pretty quickly when one of these urges struck, however, that he was too busy to be able to pay the proper attention to a dog and cats were pretty much the devil and he didn't like the idea of having another Loki around to reject him when he wanted to lavish attention on the damn thing. It was part of why he didn't want kids, either. They didn't deserve an absent dad like he'd had. He wasn't going to be that guy.

It didn't take long to find the circular platform where they'd sent Loki off to Asgard, Tesseract in tow. Loki stopped and leaned against half-wall, disentangling his hand from Tony's. He seemed to be lost in thought, but for once that wasn't a bad thing, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips as if eternally amused. He supposed he would be amused too. He'd certainly been amused to corner Loki crawling up the steps of his living room after he'd thrown Tony out the window and thought he'd had the upper hand. Tony just watched him, watched the memories flitting across his face for several long moments. The smile faded and was replaced by grief and he knew his mind had taken the logical path across all his actions following his return to Asgard, including his mother's death.

There was a heaping pile of resentment towards Odin after that. Had he been informed of what had happened sooner, Loki was sure he'd have been able to save her. He'd confessed as much to Tony through a mess of tears, his voice breaking in the pain of his loss. Tony didn't want to tell him that he doubted even he could have healed her, that he couldn't save everyone. There was being honest and there was just being an asshole and for once in his life, Tony had learned to tell the difference and keep his mouth shut.

Tony approached him now, slowly because a sudden embrace was just going to startle him or piss him off and he really didn't want six feet of angry Norse god terrorizing Central Park right now. Carefully he reached for Loki's hand, curling his fingers around his before threading them together. There was a too-bright quality to Loki's eyes and a momentary sharpness in his expression before it softened and he allowed Tony to pull him into his arms. He closed his eyes and sank his face into the billionaire's hair, breathing deeply and forcibly pushing away the unpleasant memories aside. After a moment they separated, though still kept their hands entwined, and continued along their path.

It wasn't unusual for some of the city's numerous homeless people to find shelter amongst the trees or beneath the bridges in the park. It wasn't unusual to find young couples pressed against the tree trunks or writhing beneath the low-hanging branches going at it hot and heavy. It was unusual to find a young teenaged girl looking only slightly worse for the wear--as if she might have been homeless or might have just been from a bad neighborhood--curled into a ball beneath a tree with a McDonald's wrapper crumpled in a fist that had gone slack with sleep. Tony pulled up when he saw her, blinking behind his shades just to make sure he was seeing things right. Loki looked down at him with confusion before he followed the mortal man's gaze, but failing to find what was so remarkable about it that had made Tony pause.

"Hold on a sec, Lok," he told the god, who got a very uncomfortable feeling that Tony was about to do something really stupid. He knew better than most that people were not always as weak or innocent as they seemed, and Tony ought to know that pretty well himself. Still, he stood silently as he watched Tony walk towards the girl, his body tensing and the frail pulse of magic collecting in his fingertips. He wasn't going to stand by and let Tony get robbed--or worse, attacked. She could have a gun, a knife, anything. And Tony was far from a damsel who couldn't defend himself, but he was also too reckless for his own good.

Tony knelt down just to the side of the girl, his knees groaning in protest. Christ I'm getting old. Why couldn't I get Loki to fix me up before he lost his magic? Oh yeah, because he was too busy being a psycho murdering world-conqueror. Gently he reached out to touch her shoulder and the effect was instantaneous. She bolted upright, her brown eyes wide with horror and her arms already clutched in front of her chest, the McDonald's wrapper falling to the ground forgotten. "Whoa, hey, it's okay. Not gonna hurt you. See, no weapons," he said, showing her his hands with open palms. It didn't completely discount the possibility of him having a weapon hidden away somewhere--and he kinda cursed the looseness of the hoodie now--or, if she recognized him, that he didn't have a suit en route right now.

And of course, instead of finding his words reassuring, she was rolling away and sprinting off before he even had a chance to process the thought of grabbing her to stop her. Fuck, he was getting too old for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta'd, only checked for spelling & grammar utilizing http://www.polishmywriting.com/, so I apologize for errors in characterization or knowledge of New York City (I've never been) or factual errors in general. I try to research the best I can, but even the internet can sometimes have its limits. :)


	2. An Offer You Can't Refuse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Tony catch up to the girl and Tony offers to let her stay at the Tower. Loki thinks he's crazy and tells him as much, but we all know no one tells Tony what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely pleased with this chapter. I wrote it in three sessions and the ending in particular feels a little rushed. I probably could have written out the ending a little more and split it into a separate chapter since this one is rather long as is, but I wanted to go ahead and get another chapter up. Be gentle. :) Thanks for the comments thus far, even if I haven't gotten around to responding! (So sorry!)

Loki was the first one after her, reacting instinctively when Tony did not immediately rise. If Tony didn't chase after her right away, something had happened to him and Loki was not about to let some mortal girl injure him and get away with it. And though he had relied on his magic for so long, it did not mean his body was weak. His long legs were corded with muscle that came from exercises in agility and speed. He was not possessed of the same strength that Thor was, but he was quick and limber. He had used it mostly to twist to avoid attacks in the past, but now he was running after something, after someone, and he didn't have his magic to entrap her, so he was spurred to run even faster.

But even as quick as Loki was, the girl was remarkably swift herself. She had the advantage of a head start and a desperate need to escape. Loki's reaction to avenge whatever injury she had caused Tony was not as strong as her need to get away. Dimly he heard Tony calling after him, telling him to leave her alone. He wasn't hurt and Loki was an idiot for leaving him behind. The former sorcerer didn't care. He knew Tony's tendency to downplay his injuries and even if it was true that he was unharmed, there was a burning determination within the man's breast. He'd been accused of lacking conviction before and now it was as if he spent every waking breath trying to prove that ghost of a man wrong. He would catch this girl, who was weaving between trees and through a crowd of jogging mothers with strollers in an attempt to lose him. She would have to be more clever than that to fool the Trickster.

Loki was gaining on her, taller than his target and undoubtedly more experienced in the chase. Granted, most of his chases had been on horseback, pursuing game on one of their grand hunts, but he had hundreds of years of muscle memory and practice using his keen eyes to find game far more camouflaged than a girl in a dingy blue jacket. She darted around a tree, but she was too close and her backpack snagged on a low-hanging limb. She was jerked backwards by the force of her own momentum against the solidity of the tree, too startled to recover before Loki was on her, curling his long fingers in the lapel of her jacket and hauling her onto her tip toes.

"Tell me why I shouldn't split your skull right now before you even have a chance to scream," he hissed menacingly.

The girl's face blanched and she was struggling not to shake, but Loki could pick up on the light trembling in her body. Good, she knew fear then. Perhaps she wasn't completely stupid then.

"Loki, put her down," he heard Tony's breathless command behind him. Precious seconds ticked past in which Loki didn't move to obey, continuing to glare down at the dark-haired girl with his lips pulled back in a frightening display of teeth. He may have lacked his powers now but he looked no less menacing, no less the villain despite his reformation, than he had during the invasion.

"Loki." The voice was firmer now, coming from his elbow as Tony joined them. Some of the fear eased out of the girl's face, only because she seemed to think Tony her savior, her eyes flicking over to the billionaire in a silent plea. Loki's fingers gave a final twist in the cloth before he lowered her to the ground and released her, taking a step back when Tony's hand settled on his arm.

"That was a very stupid thing to do," he said and Loki shot his a sharp glance, thinking on the defensive and thinking the words were meant for him. But Tony's eyes were on the young woman now, who appeared to be in her teens. She still had the rounded cheeks of youth, if a bit hollowed by whatever predicament had led to her sleeping beneath a tree in Central Park.

"I'm s-sorry.I wasn't thinking. I just panicked. Please don't--" she broke off, not entirely sure what she was pleading with them not to do. Or perhaps she'd gotten a good look at Tony, realized who he was and that he was supposed to be a hero. Surely he wouldn't hurt her if he was a hero, Loki imagined her logic told her. But heroes were not always saints, and she also seemed to come to this conclusion because the spark of fear, momentarily dulled by her recognition of Tony, flashed brightly again.

Tony held up a hand, perhaps silencing her,perhaps placating her. "Relax. We're not going to hurt you." He shot a look at Loki, but the green-eyed man was not cowed, returning it with a tight-lipped expression and hard eyes. "My partner here's a bit twitchy, so just, don't run, okay?"

The girl shook her head, glancing over at Loki again. There was still a healthy dose of fear in her gaze, but also suspicion. Both of these he approved of, even if he didn't actually have any intention of harming her given that Tony remained unharmed himself.

"Look, I just wanted to see if you were alright. I wasn't trying to rob you or anything. It's not exactly an everyday thing to see a girl your age sleeping in the park." One of these days, Tony's humanity was going to get him killed. Then again, his blatant disregard of morals had gotten him kidnapped and nearly killed in the past, so really there was no winning solution to this problem. Hence why Loki was a bit "twitchy", as Tony put it. There were enemies everywhere, hidden in the most innocent of people. He would know. He was the loving son who ruined his brother's coronation, got him banished, then attempted to kill him, all under the guise of being supportive,. All it took was for one moment to go horribly wrong and he might be watching Tony's lifeblood leak out onto the sidewalk or soaking into the thirsty ground, helpless to do anything without his magic.

The girl looked confused by Tony's concern, but also embarrassed by her state. It wasn't hard to see that she was homeless. Her jacket hadn't been washed in several weeks, he imagined, covered in dirt and grass stains. There were tiny holes in her striped shirt where the fabric was wearing thin and her jeans were equally worn, the knees faded and stained green and brown. And that was ignoring the smell of unwashed human, covered in a cheap, cloying perfume she'd probably stolen from a convenience store or found in someone's trash. Her hair was greasy in her ponytail and her face was covered in smudges of dirt. There were shadows beneath her dark brown eyes, red-rimmed from a lack of sleep, and now some of the adrenaline from her flight was beginning to wear off and her shoulders were slumping wearily. She had a look of gauntness, like she hadn't eaten a proper meal in several days, if not a week, and he guesses now that the trembling was more from the physical exertions on a weak body than from fear.

If he was anyone else, he might have felt sympathy for her, especially given that he'd survived in much the same state in the dark alleys of the universe until Thanos and the Other had recruited him. But sympathy was not something he awarded easily and he was far too suspicious of her reasons for running to give it out just yet.

Abruptly, something about the girl changed. She looked less like a frightened child and more...well, almost dangerous. It was a look he recognized well because he invented that look. It's defensive and a bit feral and he knows Tony saw it too because the inventor shot him a glance like 'Did you see that?' and yes, he very much did. Loki wondered now how much of the fear had been real and how much had been an act. She was good too if she could fool him. Not that Stark's "bullshit meter", as he called it, wasn't highly attuned to such lies, but Loki had made a reputation of illusions, both with and without magic.

Loki shook his head imperceptibly. There were two ways the motion could be taken, 1) that she should not be trusted and he was watching her and 2) everything was fine and that she was not a threat. Clearly Tony misinterpreted it as the second because next thing he knew, the billionaire was extending his hospitality.

"You look like you could use a place to stay." Loki's eyes flashed angrily and his jaw tightened. "And a shower," Tony added as an afterthought, in that muttering fashion that he tended to adopt when he was talking more to himself than to the person he was unintentionally insulting. Loki placed a hand on the other man's arm warningly and the girls' gaze flicked between them with her mouth slightly agape in shock.

"Tony..." Loki said in a low voice just short of a growl.

He was quickly ignored. "No, really. I've got like...what, four? five? guest rooms just in the penthouse alone, plus a whole empty floor or two, if I remember right. But my memory's not all that great unless it's about the suits, so I'm probably wrong."

Loki's grip tightened until he heard his boyfriend's (that always felt like such an odd word to use, but Tony was so much more to him than a lover and they'd long ago passed the stage of "suitor" and there had yet to be a formal ceremony to bind them or any promise of such in the future) pained intake of air. Finally the inventor turned towards him and saw the displeased look Loki knew he wore. "Um, excuse me. It seems I forgot something important about the living arrangements. Did I forget to pick up my dirty underwear? In-laws already coming? Ow!" he said as Loki dragged him far enough away to carry on a conversation in low, hushed tones. "Okay, okay. You can let go before you amputate my arm. I don't think one-armed Iron Man will have quite as many fans."

"Stark!" Loki hissed to cut through the incessant chatter.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Oh we're back to Stark now? What happened to those nights on the beach with nothing but--"

"Tony!"

"Shutting up."

"Tony, what are you thinking? You have no idea who this mortal girl is. I don't trust her and you are being foolish as usual. Inviting her into our home? Has your mind been addled by that device in your chest?" He stabbed a finger at the center of Tony's chest where the glowing light was hidden by the layers of clothing.

"We've been over this. It's called the arc reactor," Tony responded in the same patronizing tone he used when explaining something to Cap. Loki's scowl intensified. "Okay. Not funny. Got it. Look, Lok, she's a girl. A girl who has clearly been through the ringer and needs a helping hand. Besides, I've got Jarvis to keep an eye on her and if something happens, oh I don't know, I'm Iron Man and I'm fucking a Norse god. C'mon, Loki. Let your Grinch heart grow a couple of sizes!"  
Loki continued to glare at him for a moment, but realized Tony was going to do whatever he wanted, as was his typical fashion. It was one of those things that made them well-suited for one another, but it was also a source of irritation for both parties. His jaw tightened, the muscles rippling beneath his pale skin, and Tony was staring at him just on the verge of giving him puppy eyes. Only it was Tony's special version of puppy dog eyes, mixed with a healthy dose of "You're being a paranoid psychopath and not everyone is as fucked up as you are." He still thought he was being reckless considering the number of people who had betrayed him, but he did have a point about Jarvis.

"Fine," he finally conceded, his eyes hardening as he caught Tony's triumphant smile. "However, I will not hesitate to kill her should she attempt to harm either of us. I do not need my magic to be dangerous, Tony." The warning was ominous, especially when you considered Loki had killed for less. This time he would be protecting something that was truly important to him down to the very depths of his soul, and there would be no stopping him from traversing every corner of every universe to get his revenge.

"I know. I gotcha," Tony replied and placed a hand on his shoulder in a gesture that was supposed to be reassuring. It wasn't, and Loki just felt his irritation growing. He felt the suspicion sharpening his senses, barricading his emotions and locking him down with more security than even Asgard's prisons. If he slept at all tonight, it would be something akin to a miracle.

Tony turned back to the girl, who was watching them with that same cautious look. She stared at Loki for a long moment and he returned her stare, eyes boring into her and watching for any indication of harmful intent. He saw her shiver and then focus on Tony as the mortal began to speak. "So here's the deal, sweet cheeks. You need a place to stay, I have a place to stay at. It's fucking cold out here--pardon my French--" Loki snorted and then flinched as a raindrop abruptly hit him on the nose. His eyes flicked up to the sky, gone dreary and gray almost as if it was a reflection of his mood. "--And it's starting to rain. So let's get out of here and warm back up, okay? Hey, what's your name, kid?"

The girl frowned, but she hunched her shoulders and thrust her hands into her pockets as she felt the heavy drops of rain against her threadbare jacket. She didn't look enthused about the idea of spending another night out in the weather, but nor did she seem to like the idea of going home with a man she'd probably only heard of from newspapers and magazines. She didn't look like she recognized Loki, or she'd be far more frightened than she'd acted before, but even Tony was someone to be careful around. He did have a reputation, after all, and one could never be certain of the morals of the rich and the famous.

"Sarah," she said reluctantly, the name coming out slowly as if she were tasting it on her tongue and contemplating its flavor. Loki suspected it might not be her real name, or at least not her first name.

"Nice to meet you Sarah. Now if you'll just follow me, we'll be back at Stark Tower in a few minutes. I did mention I was Tony Stark, right? Don't say it too loud, though. I might get rushed by a swarm of fangirls and Lokes here gets a little jealous."

Loki rolled his eyes. "If you truly wanted any of those trollops, I wouldn't stop you. I just wouldn't plan on seeing me at breakfast if I were you." He flashed Tony a wicked smile--too much teeth, he'd been told before--and he slipped his hands into his jacket and followed behind the two mortals, his eyes fixed on the girl. They weren't nearly close enough to the Tower for his comfort and it was a long, stiff walk back. The elevator ride was tense and silent until Tony started to attempt making jokes before realizing Sarah and Loki were far too wound up to laugh.

"Tough crowd," he muttered before lapsing back into silence. It was a tall building and so it seemed to take an eternity before a soft ding announced their arrival and the doors slid open.

"Welcome home, Sirs," Jarvis greeted them. By now Loki had become accustomed to the AI's voice and even learned to draw a certain amount of comfort from it. His nature still chafed at the constant surveillance, even when he was not plotting world domination or a takeover of Asgard. There was never the assurance that should he crave a little innocent fun he wouldn't be tattled on by the computer program. However, Tony had had a frank discussion with Jarvis at some point, because the AI answered to Loki as loyally as to his creator and the Norse god had finally been able to relax. If someone were to try to make an attempt on his life, he was certain Jarvis would use every security measure and trigger every alert to ensure the failure of such an endeavor.

"Hey Jarv! We've got a visitor who'll be staying in one of the spare bedrooms. Sarah, this is Jarvis, my AI and faithful manservant. Jarvis, this is Sarah. Say hello."

"It is a pleasure, Miss Sarah."

"Um, hi," she said cautiously, her brown eyes flicking around the room to find the source of the voice, even though Tony had just said he was an AI. She still expected some kind of physical presence and Loki found himself smirking a little at the site. He removed his jacket and draped it on an ornate coat rack--his addition to the space since Tony typically just slung his jackets over whatever surface was closest until his assistant picked it up and took it off to the cleaners. He was attempting to appear casual, to exude the confidence that came with being in one's own territory where the mortal girl was unfamiliar. It was only partially successful, however, and the tension was unlikely to leave his body completely until she was gone from this place.

"Well, I guess that's all the introductions for now. You wanna see your room now or we can watch some TV? Lok, didn't you say there was a show on tonight you wanted to watch?"

Loki was a little surprised by the question. It had been an off-handed comment he thought Stark had ignored. One could never tell what actually stuck in that man's brain and what just flew straight from ear to ear. "Yes," he replied after a moment. "There is a program about your lost creatures...cryptozoology I believe they call it."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's right. You and your damn Animal Planet. So yeah, there's that, but I think we've got time to watch something that's _actually_ interesting before that's on."

Sarah looked uncertain, clearly confused about what is the proper thing to do. Her eyes kept flitting around the penthouse and it was clear she'd never experienced such luxury and extravagance in her life. "I, um, you mentioned a shower? I mean, I don't have anything to change into, but I think I'd like a shower first if you don't mind."

"Of course. Actually, I think there might be some of Pepper's things around here somewhere."

"Sir, I'm afraid Miss Potts collected the last of her belongings last week," Jarvis interrupts politely.

"Or maybe not. Well if you don't mind some ratty band shirts and sweatpants, I've got some you can borrow," Tony offers with a gentle smile.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Thank you. So much. For all of this," she said. She looked like she wants to say more, but wasn't sure of how to phrase it. She was still taut as a bowstring, clearly out of her comfort zone. Loki watched Tony lead her to one of the guest rooms, turning to watch them disappear down a hallway before he released a breath that had become caught in his chest. He took a few long strides until he was at the couch, then sank into it and arranged himself as comfortably as he can manage. He scrubbed at his forehead wearily, trying to force himself to relax, but there was an anxious pulse fluttering in his throat at the thought that he just let Tony walk away with her alone. If she had any weapons...

Loki started to rise, his boots thudding hard on the floor, when Tony reappeared with a grin, walking towards the bar and pouring them both a tumbler of scotch. The god leaned back against the arm of the couch, putting his feet back onto the cushions, and took the tumbler that Tony extended to him. The man placed his own on the table and then lifted Loki's legs to sit before placing them on his lap. With deft fingers, Tony pulled off the boots and thin socks and began to gently massage the god's feet.

A soft groan rumbled in his chest and he closed his eyes at the soothing movements. If allowing a mortal girl from the streets to stay in the penthouse earned him a footrub every time, he might be more inclined to start adopting strays. "She won't be here long," Tony said in a comforting voice and Loki opened his eyes to stare at the man. "Just until she gets on her feet and we can figure out what happened to her. Then she can go back wherever she belongs and you can chill out again."

Loki sighed. "Do whatever you need to rest your conscience," he said dismissively and felt Tony sigh himself. Loki's mind wasn't going to change in the time it had taken to get home from the park and Tony seemed to be standing behind his decision as well, so they were at an impasse. "But by the Nines if you stop that I will slaughter you first," he added in a slightly teasing voice, earning a smirk from Tony.

"Are you going to ask me to kneel too, Princess?" he quipped back.

"Shut up and rub my feet, mortal."

The rest of the evening went remarkably smooth. Dinner was ordered from a takeout place and delivered to the Tower, some kind of Indian food that left Loki's mouth feeling like the time he'd accidentally made himself breathe fire, but seemed to please Sarah and Tony. They watched Loki's show and Tony snickered pretty much the whole time until Loki started to tell him about some of Asgard's creatures. Sarah remained quiet at that and he couldn't read her expression to tell if she thought he was being serious or if he was merely well-versed in Norse mythology. Everyone had their area of interest, after all, and it had come up in conversation that he worked at a museum.

Eventually it was time to go to bed and the god resolved himself to a sleepless night despite having to work the next day. He still wasn't completely comfortable around the girl. She was too guarded, too quiet, and reminded him too much of himself. And he knew he might have allowed himself to appear helpless to earn the pity of an enemy and be taken in to their home, just where he could strike them at their most vulnerable. It was far easier to assume everyone was as devious as he was than to let down his guard and end up dead.

Surprisingly, though, his eyes drifted shut and he was soon asleep with Tony's warmth at his side.


	3. Beyond my Wildest Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah has a bad dream her first night at Stark Tower and it alters a few perceptions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnd here is the preview chapter that was previously posted as a separate work. So it's an update, but not technically, but it ties in and catches the story up and now I can continue plotting and advancing the plot. I'd been trying to keep to one POV in the new chapters, but this one kinda switches and I don't feel like changing that, so I'll leave it as is.

Terror shot through her body like a bolt of lightning and she sat up with a cry lodged in her throat, the choking sensation almost more terrifying than the nightmare itself. Her hands fluttered at her neck in a panic before she released she could feel her breath rasping through her windpipe, expelled in short gasps from chapped lips. A shudder raked her too-thin body and she was still for only a moment before the weight of the sheets clustered haphazardly around her calves was too much and she kicked them off violently to get rid of the clinging sensation.

The bedding held a sticky moisture now from the sweat emitted from her pores as the nightmare had raged and she swung her legs out of the bed and rose, removing herself from the stifling embrace of the bed. It wasn't even the type of dream that seemed to make sense or would be frightening if she was able to voice it to others, but to her it held all of the world's horrors in the space of a few minutes. It was a shapeless gray blob, looking not unlike those kneaded erasers that were fun to play with like silly puddy or clay, but far from being as innocent. She was held in a paralyzing fear at the end of a corridor as the shape ricocheted off the walls, steadily advancing on her. There was no escape, and the shape knew it. It finally looped around her several times before a face appeared, smugly grinning in its mastery of her.

She was trapped by a kneaded eraser.

Even at the absurdity of that thought, she couldn't stop the pervasive fear that was almost an acrid stench in her nostrils (or that could just be the sweat--yeah, definitely the sweat.) She shivered again and wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing briefly at the goose-pimpled flesh as she paced a few steps back and forth. She was in an unfamiliar home, that of her gracious hosts who had offered her a place to stay. She'd been hesitant to accept their help, worried it would just end in them turning her into the authorities, since being a teenage runaway wasn't exactly legal. But in the end, the chill in the autumn air and the gnawing hunger that was a byproduct of having no money in a money-centric world had won out and she'd agreed to go with the two dark-haired men.

Okay, so she was talking now like she hadn't recognized them. Well, one of them she really didn't know. The tall, lean man with the clean-shaven face with an expression like granite was unfamiliar. Frightening, too, if she was being honest. The other man...well, everyone knew Tony Stark. It added to her hesitation of accepting their help, given that a world-famous man offering aid to some teenaged street rat wasn't likely to go unnoticed, and then there was that slight rankling of pride that didn't want to turn into some sappy Cinderella rags-to-riches story. But again, she was cold and she was hungry and if was really all that bad, she could always slip out while they were sleeping or something.  
But right now she had no intention of leaving. She was scared out of her mind, shivering from more than just the cold, and the unfamiliarity of it all just made everything so much worse. she was hesitant to leave the guest room she'd been shown to, if only because she didn't want to accidentally wander into some place she wasn't supposed to be, even if the billionaire had casually told her to "Make yourself at home." She really hated it when people said that. Everyone's homes were so different from one another and one person's idea of a safe environment, of a true home, could be completely different as well.

What if home to her was blaring rap music and graffiti'd artwork on the walls? Somehow she didn't think the former-CEO of Stark Industries would appreciate that mesh of styles with this modern look he had here. And Mr. Tall and Dangerous? Definitely not. She got the distinct impression she shouldn't piss him off, intentionally or not. it just seemed like a very bad idea, even if Tony Stark had shown the slightest ability to perhaps control, or at least temper, the other man's actions. _He_ hadn't wanted to take her in, but Mr. Stark had convinced him.

Finally though, the rawness in her throat demanded to be soothed and in order to do that, she needed water. She was tempted to go for something stronger, an eye cast lingeringly over the expansive bar that she wandered past in search of the kitchen. With as much as the tabloids said he drank, he'd hardly notice a glass or two of missing liquor. But she decided not to do that, especially when she remembered that disembodied voice--JARVIS, the billionaire had addressed it --and hunched her shoulders against the feeling of being watched.

She found the kitchen and got herself a drink of water, eyes closing briefly at the feeling of cool liquid sliding down her ravaged throat. It was far from enough relief to go back to sleep, though, no matter how tired she felt. Her body was heavy with exhaustion, weak from surviving on the streets for weeks. She wasn't even sure anymore why she was running, just that she had to keep doing so. Maybe it was still that stupid pride thing, inherent in all teenagers who thought themselves bigger and badder than the world. It had been rampant in the adults too until the alien invasion.

Yeah, she _so_ did not need anymore fuel for her nightmares.

Being unable to go back to sleep, she settled instead for hesitantly roaming the spacious apartment at the top of Stark Tower. She suspected the dwelling actually took up a couple more floors, but this was the only one she'd been shown and she had no desire to poke her nose where it might get sliced off for her troubles. She was smoothing her hand over a statue, eyes directed outside the large glass windows, when there was a voice behind her.  
"Can't sleep?" It was Tony. He'd insisted she call him Tony. Not Mr. Stark, not Iron Man, not Anthony, like she sometimes heard his companion (boyfriend? lover?) saying. Tony. Okay, she could do that.

She nodded quietly, withdrawing her hand and tucking it close to her body as she folded her arms across her chest in a timid, protective manner. He seemed to sense what she wasn't saying, but then again he probably was no stranger to them himself. "Nightmares, huh?"

Again she nodded. "Yeah I usually just drink until I blackout or I don't sleep at all, but seeing as how you're--what, 15? 16?" He didn't wait for her to respond, but she gave a short nod at the first. "Yeah, not a good idea. Not that I wasn't already having adult time at that age, but I really don't think Fury's gonna give me a pass for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I mean, I guess I'm kinda doing that already by letting you stay here," he said, tilting his head as he talked, more to himself than to her. He talked a lot. Had anyone ever told him that? There was no way no one had never told him that. "Yeah. That's so not the point," he said as he seemed to realize he was rambling. He paused for a moment and fixed her with a soft gaze. She knew that look. It was the look that said, 'You poor baby, living out on the streets. You must be so scared and alone.' Only, it wasn't, at the same time. There was something less...condescending about it. Something more understanding. _Well, duh, he_ was _kidnapped and held captive in a cave for three months_ , she thought to herself.

"C'mere. I wanna show you something."

It was just enough to be confusing and just confusing enough that she walked towards him with only a moment of hesitation. He half-turned to walk down the hallway and waited patiently for her to catch up, arms loosely crossed in front of his stomach. As she drew closer she could see a faint blue light emanating from beneath the fabric of his sleep shirt, an oddity she noted but tiredly categorized as "things to think about later". Tony led her to the door she'd seen him and the long-haired stranger disappear into earlier, meaning it was probably their bedroom. And wasn't he just saying something about her being too young? Oh, she was not stupid. A girl on the streets, no matter what her age, was usually a prostitute and it wouldn't have been the first time she'd been propositioned.

But rather than making some kind of lewd overture, he paused at the doorframe and leaned leisurely against it, the door open so that they could look inside. It was a huge room, with a huge bed and a huge window and just everything was, well...huge. Including the sleeping man in the bed, a tangle of limbs that had only lost _some_ of that menacing edge.

"Okay, everyone knows Tony Stark is Iron Man. I went to Afghanistan for a few months, came back and started building a suit, saved the world a few times, yaddah yaddah. Everybody knows that story. But him? I bet you don't know who he is," he said, looking expectantly at the girl. She shook her head carefully and there was a small bit of smugness to his smile that was ingratiating and had it been anyone else than the most famous billionare-playboy-super hero who had taken her in, she might have wanted to punch him for it. "That, my friend, is a god. A real life magic-wielding, immortal Asgardian god." That wasn't _technically_ true, given that his magic was currently inhibited and he wasn't truly immortal, but...you know, details. "He looks gentle as a kitten right now--" Um, not really. "--but that's the guy who led the invasion a few years ago. He's changed since then, but he could still snap someone's neck before they even realized they'd pissed him off."

Why was he telling her all of this? She was seeing just how much of a mistake it was to allow these men to help her, how dangerous they both were. A super hero and a _god_? She wasn't even sure she believed it--any of it really, for all the times that she'd seen the YouTube videos of Iron Man arriving at the Stark Expo to reveal Tony Stark. But especially the god bit because really? Everyone knew gods weren't real. Then again, there were so many people who believed in a one God. If they could believe in a singular God, why couldn't multiple gods exist? Nope, she was too tired to be having a religious crisis like this.

Tony seemed to be watching her, waiting for a reaction and when one didn't come beyond what had to be a stunned--and probably skeptical--silence, his voice softened and he continued. "So basically you're under the protection of an Avenger and a super villain. A genius and the best sorcerer in the Nine Worlds. Whatever you're scared of, kid, we got it. It's kind of a generally accepted fact that you don't mess with Tony Stark and Loki." She swallowed and stared at him, still not quite sure what to make of all of this. She felt even more tired than before and he must have seen that because he was sliding an arm around her shoulders and gently leading her into the room. And though she'd been a bit nervous about the implications just a few moments ago, she wasn't now. This wasn't a sexual gesture. It was more...paternal, gentle. Call her crazy but she actually kinda felt safe right now.

"It might sound like a stupid idea and I know it did to me, but sometimes it's easier to sleep with someone else there. And hey, you're a kid still so come sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed when you have a nightmare. Just don't tell Loki he's Mommy." He cast a furtive glance over just to make sure the green-eyed god was still sleeping and grinned conspiratorially at her. The girl looked uncertainly at the sleeping god, half-curled facing the edge of the bed with one hand beneath the pillow and the other splayed out on the sheets so she could see the almost delicate shape of his fingers. But no matter how slender they were, she could practically feel the power in them, both physical and of the magical sense Tony had just spoken of. She'd felt that power earlier in the park and it had scared the crap out of her. Yeah she definitely didn't want to piss him off again.

Slowly a smile began to form on her face though her head still swam with this new information and the whole world of questions it brought. Tomorrow, though. For now..."Thanks," she murmured and carefully crawled into the impossibly large bed. She could have easily lain in it without touching either of them, but she nestled herself fairly close to Loki. It gave her a bit of a thrill to know she was laying next to someone so dangerous who could break her on a whim. Tony smiled knowingly and got into bed beside her, laying on his side to watch as she pulled the blankets up to just beneath her chin. She was flat on her back, arms and legs straight and almost stiff, but it still seemed almost comfortable. Her eyelids gradually began to flutter and slipped closed and Tony hummed 'Carry On Wayward Son' quietly.

Just as she was falling asleep she pulled her hands closer to her chest, her elbows jutting out so that one hit Loki in the back and startled the god awake. He was instantly aware of the third body in the bed and didn't seem to approve. "She is jabbing me in the back with her sharp elbows, Stark," he said in that silky, low voice of his that almost always indicated displeasure. Sometimes pleasure, too, actually. Weird kinky bipolar god.

"Shh!" Tony hushed. "She finally looks peaceful. Don't ruin it."

That earned him a soft huff and undoubtedly a glare that he couldn't see because Loki was facing the other direction. But after a moment the lean sorcerer shifted and rolled over to prop his head on his hand and watch the girl. His gaze flicked up to Tony and then back, softening almost imperceptibly. There was an enraptured look on Tony's face, as if he were watching a child of his very own loins sleep. Loki only knew the look because he'd heard it described to him of his own face when he'd looked upon Sleipnir or Narfi or Vali or even his monster-children, Hela, Jormungandr, and Fenrir. He missed them and that was why he put on the theatrical show of a resigned sigh before settling himself back down on the pillow and fixing his green eyes on Tony's brown, giving him a lingering look before he allowed himself to relax in an almost protective arch around her and closed his eyes. It was completely at odds with his earlier distrust of her, but she was asleep and he had that instinctual feeling that she wouldn't harm him.

"Aww, I knew you were a sentimental fool," Tony teased with his usual ability to never let anything go unremarked upon.

"Shut. Up." He didn't even bother opening his eyes.


	4. I Want You For Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast time and Tony tries to convince Loki to stay home from work

The moment before they woke to the ear-piercing tones of one of those annoying default alarms on Loki's phone, the trio were sleeping peacefully, just bordering on being entwined. At some point in the night Tony had reached across the pillows, instinctively seeking Loki, but not so desperate for the contact to have forgotten the presence of another person in their bed. Loki's hand loosely encircled the inventor's wrist, his thumb pressed into the palm. Sarah was curled on her side, blankets tucked fiercely under her chin and clutched in an unrelenting grip of someone so used to the cold that they had to cling to the warmth when they finally found it. Who knew when the next time would be that she got to sleep in a soft, warm bed with the additional body heat of these two strangers who had taken her in?

But the second Loki's alarm went off--and really, he had to let Tony give him a decked out Stark Phone or at least let him get some real music on that piece of crap--the peace was shattered. Sarah's eyes flew open and her body stiffened. Tony groaned and pulled his hand from Loki's grasp to pull a pillow over his head and Loki rolled to silence the phone before it could completely awaken Tony or the girl. For all that Tony eschewed sleep when he was busy in his lab, once he was finally able to sleep soundly, he fell back asleep with relative ease. But when Loki sank back into the bed, he could see the girl propped up on her elbow and staring at him with wide, frightened eyes.

For a moment he met her gaze with a stony expression, neither one of intimidation or of gentleness, but then he lifted his eyes away and inhaled deeply, ending on a reluctant groan. He would have preferred not to work today, or ever really, but he'd been the one to insist to Tony that he needed to assimilate into Midgardian society and not just rely on Tony's billions to provide for him. He'd grown up a prince, with everything he desired at the tip of his fingers even before he'd mastered his magic. Allowing Tony's wealth to provide for him would do nothing to teach him humility or help him atone--not that he thought he needed either, but he supposed for once he would do as the Allfather desired and actually play along.

"Sorry to have awakened you," he murmured after a moment, and it was a genuine apology even if it was not reflected in his tone. Some of the fear eased out of her eyes, but she still looked uncomfortable and seemed to realize the implications of waking up in a stranger's bed after a favor had been provided to her. But she was unmolested and he could see her struggling with that idea.

"It's okay," she said back in a voice just above a whisper. They could hear Tony's muffled snores underneath the pillow and Loki allowed himself a glimmer of a smile at a particularly loud snore. He wanted to stay in bed all day, to relax and also to keep watch over Tony. He wanted to trust this girl, as she was so young and obviously lost to have been sleeping outside in Central Park, but he had an inherent distrust of people. It came from being lied to and also from being distrustful himself.

Unfortunately, in this world Loki had set up for himself, he could not do everything he wished and if he did not want the disapproving stare of his mortal boss, he needed to get up and begin his morning routine. He swung his legs out of bed, grateful he wore pajamas, though he did not often sleep nude. Still, it happened on occasion, especially if he'd had a particularly rousing night with Tony, but with a fifteen year old girl in their bed that had obviously not been an option last night. He crossed to the closet to retrieve his clothing, Sarah's eyes still upon him. He slung the slacks over his shoulder and hooked the shirt hanger on long fingers that, while appearing delicate, could crush a man's throat with a simple twitch.

"I have to work this morning, so you'll be left alone with Tony today," he said, his voice a bit flat. But there was hidden in those words a threat that if she took advantage of that to harm Tony in any way, he _would_ end her in the most agonizing way he could imagine--and he'd had over a thousand years of witnessing and experiencing torture to give him a most creative imagination. He watched her throat convulse in a swallow. "You are welcome to join me for breakfast if you wish. He'll likely sleep until lunchtime and I cannot guarantee he'll eat even then."

Sarah nodded, but didn't say one way or another if she would be joining him. He disappeared into the master bath to shower and dress for work, reemerging later with hair still slightly damp and curling at the ends. She was no longer in the bed and he assumed she'd gone back to the guest room she'd been in before Tony had invited her in here. Loki pulled a tie from the closet and fastened it about his neck before returning to the bed to lean over his love. Gently he drew the pillow away from Tony's head and, holding his tie with one hand so as not to tickle him with it, leaned down to place his lips on the other man's temple.

Tony hummed contentedly at the contact, stirring just enough to reach out blindly for Loki. His fingers fastened around the tie and withdrew it from Loki's grasp, pulling the taller man's mouth further down to his own. "'mere you," he mumbled sleepily before he caught the edge of the god's smile, pressing a light kiss to the corner of his mouth before finding the rest of his lips and deepening the kiss. Loki smiled against him and allowed Stark's probing tongue to sweep into his mouth before he wrapped his fingers around the inventor's and gently pulled free.

"As much as I enjoy the idea of spending the morning with you, I have a job to get to and you have already made me late twice before."

Tony's eyes still didn't open and he shifted onto his belly, tucking his hand underneath the pillow that his head was resting on. "It's not my fault you looked all gorgeous with your bedhead godliness. Really, you should come with a warning label or something."

Loki's chuckle rumbled deep in his chest. "You have no sense of responsibility. It is no wonder Miss Potts is your CEO and you lay around in bed all day."

"Hey, I resent that. Now go away before I decide to have angry hate sex with you for insulting me."

The thought send a jolt right to his groin and Loki's fingers twitched towards his phone to call his supervisor to alert him of his sudden illness before he remembered Sarah and thought better of it. Really, though, he might have to reconsider his employment and just live off his "sugar daddy" after all. He leaned away from the bed, away from his Tony, with a great deal of reluctance and a staggering amount of self-control. "Don't lay around in bed all day. We do have company and since it was your idea to bring her here, I expect you to entertain her without getting yourself killed. You know I'll just have to drag your soul back from Hel just to kill you myself."

"Mmm, I love it when you talk dirty."

"Stark," Loki said sternly.

Finally Tony actually opened his eyes and looked up at Loki. "Fine, I'll wake up. You can cancel the disembowelment." He rolled onto his side. "You making breakfast?"

"I had planned on it, yes."

"Make enough for me?"

Loki gasped in fake shock. "The great Tony Stark, eating breakfast? Why, Ragnarok must be upon us!"

"I like you so much better when you're naked," he complained mildly.

"I like me better naked, too, but some of us don't have the world at our beck and call." Oh he very well could have had he truly desired it. And if he hadn't tried to take it over, he supposed.

"Shut up and make me breakfast," he muttered and buried his face in the pillow.

"Your wish is my command," he said back cheekily and swept out of the room before Tony's grabbing fingers could tug him into bed for a long litany of commands that he knew very well that Loki would just ignore because Loki was a god, despite having so little of his magic left to him, and he was submissive to no one.

He found Sarah sitting uneasily on one of the couches and nodded a greeting to her before continuing towards the kitchen. He peered at the contents of the fridge before pulling out a carton of eggs and a half-eaten package of bacon. It would be nice to cook for someone else for once, since Tony usually slept until well after he'd gone to work or was still down in the lab when Loki woke up. Loki wasn't an amazing cook, but he was a great deal better than Tony, who seemed to burn everything and just make a huge mess of everything. It's why the fridge was stocked with mostly pre-packaged meals delivered fresh every week in perfect proportions to maintain some of Tony's muscle mass now that he was no longer a fighting Avenger. He liked to joke sometimes that Loki was making him fat with his cooking, but if anything was adding on the pounds, it was his addiction to Chinese takeout.

"Do you have a preference for your eggs?" he asked Sarah, who had come to watch him from the other side of the breakfast bar. She shook her head gently and he eyed her for a long moment, his gaze softening. She looked out of place and he understood that feeling all too well. The opulence of Tony's home was daunting, even to a fallen prince of a golden city, and both of them had lived for some time as feral creatures on the run from something before unexpectedly landing in the lap of luxury. It was not something that the mind accepted easily.

Loki returned his attention to his meal preparation and opted for a quick scramble since it was the easiest way to cook the eggs, not having to worry about broken yokes or splashing grease on his shirt. There was enough danger of that with the bacon and he rolled up his sleeves once he'd placed the strips in the pan and reached for an apron to protect his clothing. And it was at that moment that Tony came waltzing in, scrubbing at his face, pajama pants hanging loosely on his hips and a rumbled band t-shirt showing just a flash of skin before he lowered his arm again and leaned against the counter beside Sarah.

"See? Doesn't he make a good housewife?"

Loki shot Tony a glare, only half-serious, especially when he saw how Sarah's lip quirked in laughter. The girl's head swayed as Tony bumped his shoulder with hers. "You can laugh. He has a good sense of humor even if he likes to act like a stuck up prude." That earned Tony another glare and the inventor lifted his hands in mock surrender.

"So, what do you want to do today, Sarah? The cat's away, so we've got the place to ourselves to concoct all kinds of mischief."

"That hardly seems fair, talking about your schemes in front of the _god_ of Mischief," Loki said with a hint of petulance in his tone.

"You're the one who wanted to work. You could have just let me and my billions take care of you and then you could be joining in on the mischief too. So don't complain to me, Mister."

Just for kicks, Loki puffed out his lower lip in a brief pout and finished cooking breakfast. You know, it was really unfair that he was the one cooking when he was the one going to work, while these two layabouts just watched and reaped the benefits of his generosity. Had he a little more magic, he'd be tempted to put a little bit of a surprise in the eggs, but the tiny tingling in his fingers would be better put to use elsewhere so he forced it away and dished up three plates of breakfast.

He served Sarah first, then sat down and placed Tony's plate on his other side for a moment as he speared a forkful of eggs and lifted it to his mouth, casting an innocent look up at the inventor. "Oh? Are you hungry?" he teased gently before handing over the steaming plate.

"Yeah, a real trickster, this one," he grumbled good-naturedly.

"Don't let him fool you. He loves every minute of it," Loki quipped to Sarah, who still looked vaguely uncomfortable. It wasn't often that he and Tony were around others and usually if they were, it was someone who was thoroughly used to the way they behaved. It was fun to have someone new to shock and send squirming. And really, this was tame for them, rather PG-13 in light of the minor they were entertaining. He could think of a dozen remarks that were bitten off and choked back down by both of them.

Loki had only a few minutes to spare for breakfast before he needed to get on his way, so he ate quickly and only half-listened to the soft conversation between Sarah and Tony as they discussed possible activities for the day. He could tell the engineer was trying, since he would usually spend his day in the lab or sprawled on the couch watching TV, but she seemed overwhelmed at the sheer multitude of things he suggested, most of which required money that she didn't have and was embarrassed to accept so easily. He knew that feeling as well, since money was nothing to Stark and he had come to this world with no currency of his own and a distinct inability to conjure it up as he normally would have done.

Finally Loki forced himself up from the breakfast bar and placed his dishes in the sink. He had high hopes that Tony would wash the breakfast dishes, but didn't actually expect it. Maybe he would at least put them in the dishwasher this time. "Behave yourself," he murmured to Tony, making sure it was loud enough for Sarah to hear. He placed a quick kiss to the mortal's temple before collecting his coat and slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"Hey, I always behave!" Loki rolled his eyes. "Fine, I never behave. Revealing all my secrets here, jeez. You're so mean."

"Not in front of the children, darling." His lips quirked up and Tony was abandoning the last scraps of his breakfast to slip his hands into the coat and around Loki's waist.

"Last chance to stay home and play hookie with me and our new friend," he said in a low voice, gone slightly husky with unspoken suggestions of a new agenda that had nothing to do with their guest.

Loki smirked down at him and then laughed quietly. "I'm afraid I can't. Have fun and don't burn anything down. I would like to have a home to return to after work."

Tony's nose crinkled. "You're no fun." Loki laughed again because they both knew how utterly untrue that was. Their lips met in a final kiss, lingering longer than they really should have, before Loki tore himself away and headed for the elevator. It was almost sickening how domestic this all was, but it was also nice to have a place he belonged. He hadn't felt truly welcome since he was very young, before Thor had grown into the muscled future King and befriended the Warriors Three and Sif and made his brother feel like an afterthought. His smile was genuine as the elevator doors closed and he descended into the real world and headed off to work.


	5. A Day of Corruption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony takes Sarah shopping and she begins to loosen up a little.

Tony stared after Loki for a moment before turning and sauntering back towards the breakfast bar in his usual lazy and unhurried manner. He could be quick when he wanted to be, but found that this attitude--that everyone could and would wait for him because he was Tony fucking Stark--suited him most of the time. His plate was mostly a collection of scraps and the eggs were cooling too fast to be edible for much longer, so he settled himself back onto the bar stool and pushed around his food with his fork nonchalantly.

"So, Sarah, what are the plans for the day?" he asked while scooping up some food, then glancing over to her with an eyebrow raised in expectation.

The dark-haired girl shifted a bit uncomfortably, but she looked more at ease around just Tony than when Loki had still been here. Must have been the god thing, seeing as how he hadn't mentioned that he wasn't quite a god anymore--or that he hadn't technically been a god in the first place. But finding out he was actually a frost giant probably wasn't going to be any less frightening than him being a god, and Loki was rather...reluctant to acknowledge that particular truth anyways, so he was going to let that go. The last thing he needed was Loki getting angry and the girl taking off, scared out of her mind.

"I...I don't know. I don't want to bother you and you and um, your partner have already done so much for me," she said quietly.

He considered her for a moment. "Well first things first, you need some clothes. As comfortable as my old band shirts are, they're kinda my favorite and I'm gonna want to wear them myself some time. I'd let you borrow some of Pepper's things, but she was pretty meticulous in taking everything when we split up, so there's really nothing here since I know my jeans aren't going to fit you either and Loki's taller than humanly possible--then again, he's not human so I guess that kind of negates that argument. You can tell me to shut up anytime now. I get like that. I start rambling and if Loki doesn't send me one of those ball-shriveling glares or tell me to shut up, I'll keep going and going. They say it's a sign of an active mind, but I think it's pretty obvious from everything I've created that my mind is pretty active, so I don't know why I need to keep talking to prove it and--"

"Stop!" she said quickly, eyes wide. "Please," she added in a quieter voice, apologetic, but also a little pleased with herself when she saw the way Tony was grinning like he'd done it intentionally (news flash: he had) to see if she'd actually do it.

"So, clothes shopping? Then maybe we can go to the museum or a movie--wait, they probably don't have matinees this early during the week. Honestly, you gotta help me out with this whole thing because the billionaire thing made me forget how to be normal and then I was off fighting villains with the Avengers and now I've got Loki, so I have no idea what people even do in this city. And really, I'm usually not awake until noon anyways, so mornings just confuse me. I guess if nothing else, you can come watch me in my lab, but I have to warn you, unless you're a science-y type or if you can't sit still for long periods of time, you're gonna be really, really bored. I mean, I don't think it's boring, but it's my work and I'm a genius so of course it's interesting to me."

"Shopping's fine!" And another score for Tony Stark's ability to talk people into doing what he wanted just to get him to shut up. He nodded and returned his attention to his breakfast, offering Sarah several minutes of silence as reward. She didn't say what she wanted to do after the shopping, but depending on how long it took them to actually leave the tower and how long they spent at the stores, it might just be time to drop in on Loki for a surprise lunch visit and then linger in the museum or something until he was off work. Loki usually took his lunch around 12:30 or 1, so a little later but not so late that they'd all be starving.

"Alright," he started when he'd finished his food, jumping off the stool and walking around the breakfast bar to put his dishes in the sink. "I think I'm gonna take a shower and all that. You're welcome to do the same or watch tv or whatever. I'll call Happy when we're ready to go, but until then, just ask Jarvis if you need anything, 'kay?"

Sarah nodded and silently finished up her own breakfast. Tony disappeared around the corner, returning to the large master suite he and Loki had occupied not that long ago. Well, Sarah too, actually, but she'd left before Tony had really woken up so he wasn't even sure how long she'd slept in there. He spent almost ten minutes in his closet trying to figure out what to wear, finally going for a dark red shirt with a Bacardi logo on it, a pair of black denim jeans, and a zippered sweatshirt with a ridiculously comfortable collar. Okay, so that one was probably Loki's, but he was stealing it and it might have possibly been because it smelled like him and Tony was a freaking sentimental softie sometimes.

By the time he'd showered and shaved and re-emerged from the bedroom, Sarah was lounging on the couch with wet, tousled hair and the dishes in the sink had been washed and placed in the drying rack. "Well damn, you didn't have to do that, not that I'm going to complain because I hate doing dishes and Loki always acts like it's a personal offense when he comes home and the dishes are still in the sink. So yeah, thanks for saving my hide there. I might actually still get laid tonight."

He could tell she was trying not to react to that, but her nose wrinkled a little in an expression akin to disgust, but also in embarrassment.

"Oh don't make that face. Like you've never heard Mom and Dad going at it--" he stopped when he saw the look on the girl's face. "Orrr maybe you haven't and your parents are dead and I'm an insensitive prick."

She didn't answer.

"Christ, they are, aren't they? Damn, I'm sorry kid. My parents died when I was young, too. Not as young as you and it doesn't really count because they didn't give a shit about me, but...yeah, anyways. I've been there. It sucks. Yeah, and I'm an asshole," he trailed off, muttering to himself. This was the one time he hated to be right. "That's not...uh, that's not why you were sleeping in the Park, was it?"

Sarah shook her head gently. "No. They've been dead for awhile. Ten years, actually. I, um, I'm in foster care now. Or I was." And that was all she looked like she was going to say on the subject and for once in his life, Tony was going to shut up and not poke at it with a stick until something lashed out or exploded.

"Well," he said and clapped his hands together. "You ready there, sport?" She nodded gratefully and they went to the elevator in silence. When they emerged in the tower's lobby, Happy was already waiting for them and Tony was actually going to let him drive for once, so he could talk to Sarah some more. Despite Happy being his "driver", Tony usually drove. Call it one of his eccentricities, but he didn't really trust other people behind the wheel, even Happy. Bad things tended to happen when other people drove. Like an IED blowing up right in front of the Humvee he was in, or his parents dying in that car accident...much safer to have control.

So Tony piled into the backseat with Sarah and she almost seemed surprised that it was a fairly nondescript sedan, rather than one of the sports cars the paparazzi always shot him in or a stretch limo like most other celebrities were wont to travel in. "I know, not very snazzy for someone of my stature. But when you're dating an ex-super villain, it's usually better to go incognito."

"That makes sense," she conceded and directed her gaze out the window as Happy pulled away from the curb. Tony found himself at a loss for words--rather unusual, I know--since what he really wanted to talk to her about was so obviously a subject she didn't want to discuss. So he had to find something else, some other way to get to know her and help her loosen up a bit until she trusted him to tell him more. Maybe he could help out beyond a couple nights in the tower and some new clothes. He didn't know how yet, but he was Tony Stark; he'd figure it out.

"So do you go to school? Or did you? Before you...ran away to join the circus and everything? How's that going, by the way? I mean, I always had my suspicions about the squirrels being trapeeze artists, but I can't find a proper journalist to do one of those gritty documentaries."

Sarah looked wary at first, but soon she was chuckling softly at the sheer ridiculousness of the man. Good. That was him. Ridiculous Tony Stark. "The squirrels aren't the most interesting act. You would never believe what the geese can do," she responded in a low, conspiratorial voice. "But yeah, I did go to school. It sucked, mostly. Everyone's a bunch of idiots and they just want the bell to ring so they can go fuck underneath the bleachers."

He couldn't help himself. He snorted and she cast him a look, then realized what she said, eyes widening. "Oh come on. I'm no more an adult than you are and I'm hardly going to ground you for saying 'fuck'. If you haven't noticed, I'm rather fond of the word." She relaxed slightly. "But sounds like things haven't changed since I was in school, then. You can hardly blame me for rushing right through it so I could get into MIT when I was your age." Yeah he's bragging a bit. Natasha _did_ analyze him as having "textbook narcissism."

"Anything that wasn't borderline suicidally boring?" Maybe he'd get lucky and she'd like science and he could have another science buddy. Hell, she could be his science prodigy. Not as young as he was, but...

"Music. I was in band for awhile and choir, too. I did pretty good in all my classes, though. But music was always way more interesting."

"Oh yeah? What'd you play?" He had an appreciation for music, perhaps not the same genre, but he could totally get the creative thing. Music was practically a science of its own, after all.

"Sax. I wanted to play in the jazz band, but they didn't let freshmen try out and I'll probably miss the boat for auditions this year." It went unsaid that she'd miss them because she'd run away and didn't plan on coming back. He wondered what her plan even was. After running away, what then? Live out in Central Park for the rest of her life digging in the trash for scraps? New York got freaking cold in the winter (unless you were Loki, who enjoyed the cold even if he hated his natural form and teased Tony mercilessly about his aversion to it.) She seemed like a smart girl and smart girls weren't stupid enough to think they'd survive a winter in the elements. And that was if she didn't get kidnapped and raped, like she probably thought Tony was going to do when he'd chased her down. Well, shit, he'd really started that one off on the right foot. Hopefully he'd convinced her otherwise.

The car pulled up to the curb and Tony was quick to slide out of the back seat and clap a hand to Happy's arm. "I'll call ya when we're done, pal. Go get yourself a massage or something nice. You deserve it," he said and pulled a couple bills from his wallet, though it was hardly necessary considering how well he paid the man already. Sarah looked around uneasily, some of it fading when she recognized the shopping mall. She still seemed perturbed by the number of people milling around, and this was just the beginning of the crowds that would swarm the stores for the Christmas season.

"Alright, you lead the way. I know absolutely zilch about women's clothes." And hesitantly she did. It took them three hours before Tony was satisfied with the number of bags hanging from their arms and finally dialed up Happy to get him to pick them up.

"Perfect timing. Let's swing by the museum and surprise Loki. Do you want to change first, or are you okay in that?"

Sarah glanced down at her clothing and shrugged. It was comfortable and she kinda liked the casual look. "Nah, I'm fine."

Tony smiled. She had good taste then. "Great. Oh, I should probably tell you, when Loki's out in the real world, he goes by Lucas Smythe. While everyone knows who Loki is, not many people got a good look at him so as long as no one knows his real name, he can pretty much blend in. And he might look a little different, too. He uses some of his magic to change up his appearance so he's not a distracting Norse sex-god and more of an ugly mortal. Not that Loki's capable of being ugly, but...yeah. I think he said he changes his eyes to brown. Something about them being less noticeable than green, but then he started talking about my eyes and doing other things with his mouth so the memory's a little bit fuzzy. I'm not usually up and about to go spend lunch with him or I'm caught up in meetings with Pep or S.H.I.E.L.D., so..."

She was staring at him like he had two heads again. And Christ if she didn't look a little bit like Loki when she did that...maybe he had a mortal kid he didn't know about. "Are you sure you aren't related to him?" he blurted out.

She looked mortified. "God no! I mean, I guess I don't really know. It could be possible, but I'm pretty sure my dad was just an electrician. Not an alien space Viking trying to enslave the planet."

"Shit! Now you're talking like you're my kid. What was your mom's name? I might've banged her. I banged a lot of women. Actually, you know, a name wouldn't help at all really. I'm terrible with names," he mused to himself.

"Ugh, gross. I really could have done without that image in my head," she complained, shifting closer to the window as Tony plastered a shit-eating grin on his face. He decided to spare her any further conversation and focused instead on the traffic Happy was expertly navigating them through. Still didn't put him entirely at ease and his knee bounced rapidly in a nervous tic he usually only displayed when he was on the verge of an anxiety attack, though right now he was still pretty far away from that level of fear. He hadn't had an attack in months. He had Loki to thank for that. Sometimes he still woke up drenched in sweat from a nightmare with Loki pressed against his back and pressing gentle kisses to the side of his face and neck. And sometimes he was the one doing the soothing as the god thrashed in their bed. Loki was always a little more violent in his nightmares, but he'd lash out too if he was being trapped by Thanos and the Other.

"Shit," he said when they got to the museum and started to go inside. "You don't have a museum pass. Well, I'll just pay for yours and we'll see about getting you a pass later. We'll come back after lunch and they know me, so they should let us right back in." He gave the clerk his own pass and then paid for Sarah's admission fee. It didn't take them long to locate Loki and like an idiot, Tony beamed and yelled, "LOK--as! Lucas." Loki's head whipped towards them with a scowl on his face. He was talking to someone and made an impatient gesture to Tony to tell him to wait. Obviously he didn't like the surprise as much as he'd hoped, but then again, he'd almost just rushed in and blown his cover right there, so yeah, he'd be pretty pissed.

"Nice one," Sarah teased quietly.

"Can it, Mini Me."

"Ew, I'm totally not your mini me."

"What do you mean ew? C'mon, you totally want a piece of these genes."

Loki approached then, cocking an eyebrow at their bickering. "Don't tell me he's rubbed off on you already," he said to Sarah, his lips quirking up at the corners.

"Well that depends. He keeps saying I'm his kid or something, which is really gross. That, or I'm yours, but like I keep telling him, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if my dad was a super-anything and my mom sucked at lying so there's no way she could keep a secret anyways."

Loki's eyes grew a bit wider and he gave the two brunettes an incredulous look before turning it solely on Tony. "I can't leave you alone with anyone, you know." Tony shrugged unapologetically and extended an arm towards Loki, wriggling his fingers until it was secured about the taller man's waist. "Mm, and to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Well, Sarah and I did a bit of shopping and we're starving now so we thought we'd drop by and see if you wanted to grab some lunch with us. I was thinking Isabella's right around the corner." It was a favorite place to go when they spent their days in Central Park, though Sundays they tended to avoid it because it got really busy and getting a table without a reservation was pretty much impossible even for Tony Stark.

Loki's face lit up at the suggestion. "That sounds excellent! Just let me get my coat and I'll be right out," he said, withdrawing from Tony's side to retrieve his coat and scarf from his office down the hall.

Lunch was delicious as always, but unfairly hurried because Loki only had so much time for lunch before he needed to get back to the museum to resume his cataloging duties. As predicted, the clerk let Tony and Sarah in without protest and Tony stopped to purchase a seven-day pass for Sarah that would allow her entry into this and several other attractions across the city. They were walking away to actually peruse the museum when he noticed Sarah had stopped in her tracks and was frowning down at the New York Pass that would pretty much guarantee at least a week spent at Stark Tower with Tony and Loki, though Tony planned on letting her stay as long as she wanted to. "Museum of Sex? That's why you buy the passes, Tony!"

He smirked quietly to himself and dropped back next to her, pointing a little farther down the line of text printed on the pass. "Nope. Museum of Science. I like science, okay?" Not that he hadn't been to the Museum of Sex a couple times, mostly just to say he'd been. He prefered to research the subject in his own way.

"Suuuure." She was loosening up already and he knew Loki saw it too. Loki was even relaxing a bit around her, especially after seeing Tony was still whole. Yeah, he had seen the way his boyfriend had looked him over as if he'd expected him to be under some kind of mind control or something. Without his usual reserves of magic, he couldn't exactly perform some kind of voodoo magic-detecting spell or anything to see if Sarah was as harmless as she seemed, so that put the god on the defensive. But clearly there was nothing to be worried about. She was just a kid, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I totally did some research for this chapter. Loki works at the American Museum of Natural History right by Central Park and Isabella's is a Mediterrean-American bistro I found on Google Maps. And in doing so, I decided to actually research the location of Stark Tower and found that it is thankfully just over a mile away from Central Park, so walking there is not utterly ridiculous to fathom. (I may have also checked to see where the Museum of Sex is and it's only a mile and a half away in the opposite direction...)


	6. Read All About It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki gives Sarah a small demonstration of his magic and later Tony joins them with a surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sooo sorry for the wait guys. I was struggling a bit with the chapter and then it's been sitting in my inbox for about a month while I got sucked into the world of Tumblr RPing. Eep! I hope this chapter is worth the wait.

Tony didn't get laid that night. Disappointing, I know. But Loki--who was far from being a prude--insisted on refraining until the girl was gone. He was still expecting her to be gone in a few days, whether that be of her own volition or because Tony found somewhere else for her to stay (or convinced her to go back home, which Tony had informed him was a foster home, though he didn't know yet if it was a good foster home or a bad one.)

Loki could see the flicker of disappointment, as if he was telling him he couldn't keep a stray puppy he'd picked up off the streets, but it had been hard enough for him to learn to trust Tony after everything that had happened in his long life. Even if there was something about the girl that struck a chord with him, he still preferred life the way it was: just him and his engineer lover, holed up in their lofty penthouse with hardly anyone bothering them. It was such a far cry from the constant interruptions his life as a prince had brought him. The peace was incredibly satisfying.

The next few days passed in much the same way. Loki had work during the day and left the Tower at the same time each morning, though one morning Tony actually cooked and another morning Sarah did. She made fruit-filled crepes that reminded him of Asgardian cuisine in such a way that made him smile and then turn bitter in the next breath. All of his thoughts of Asgard were met with similar reactions. But some of the most bitter were ones he deserved. His first trial, after his invasion of the city that was now his home, was a particularly sore point. It had been the last time he would ever see his mother alive, save for the times she projected herself into his prison cell.

He still resented Odin for his words then, even if he'd had his revenge when he'd sent the old fool away and taken his place on the throne. In the end, though, he owed his adoptive father his life. He could have ordered his immediate execution when he was tried for his usurpation of the throne, but instead Odin had taken mercy on him, perhaps too tired to fight him any longer. He had still taken his magic, save for a small reserve, and that alone felt like a death sentence.

But he had Tony. It was the only thing that allowed him to accept this fate, living amongst the mortals he had once held himself above--still held himself above if we were being honest, which was not a common occurrence with the god of lies.

Work was busy for Loki and his lunches were quick and taken in his office. Cataloguing items took a great deal of time between taking photographs from every angle, loading them into the computer, describing the items down to the slightest surface scratch, and inputting all the relevant information into the computer system and finally tagging the entry so that it could be pulled up easily when putting together an exhibit. There were an unusually high number of items coming in this week, several donated from the estate of a widow that had recently passed, and by the time he returned home each evening he was too exhausted to do much more than collapse on the couch and watch tv.

It was no wonder mortals were so obese with all of the take-out food and the numerous television programs. And if any of their jobs were half as dreary as his own, there was little mind power left for anything more important. Sometimes he itched to take Tony up on his offer to live off his billions, if nothing else than to busy himself in Tony's lab and learn about Earth sciences to exercise his brain the way it was meant to be exercised.

Tony and Sarah were getting along wonderfully and she was talking more every evening. Unfortunately, she was sounding an awful lot like Stark and he groaned inwardly at the idea of another Tony plaguing him with his constant energy and snark. He wasn't going to admit how much he enjoyed his banter with the other man, or how integral a role it played in their relationship. If Tony wasn't armed to the teeth with wit and sarcasm, well, he wouldn't have loved him half as much.

He wanted to distance himself from the girl, understanding that he had many fatherly instincts buried deep within him that would begin to resurface if he didn't, and he couldn't afford to become attached to her. As she confided in Tony, Tony in turn told Loki about her, usually as they were curled up together in bed, waiting for sleep to claim them since their usual method of exhausting themselves into slumber was on hold. Her parents had died when she was young and so she'd ended up in a number of temporary homes.

Some of the earlier ones were bad, with houses full of unruly kids that often had substance abuse problems or severe behavioral issues, but she'd admitted that she liked her current foster home. There was another girl, younger by a few years, and then the couple's two biological children, a boy her age and a girl who was only seven. She'd always wanted a pet, but had never had one unless you counted one of her foster home's ill-tempered, overweight Chihuahua, and she didn't. She liked music, of a startling variety, and, to some extent, writing and science. That had Tony excited and he said he was going to show her the lab and Loki had just rolled his eyes and bit down lightly on his partner's shoulder. It had a bit of an opposite effect however, and it had taken a lot of restraint to draw away before the moans grew too loud for his self-control.

The morning after that he woke up grumpy, but it was also Saturday and part of his bad mood had been JARVIS' early interruption when someone had called for Tony with urgent business. The inventor had grumbled that this was why he had Pepper and he shouldn't have even been involved in this crap, but he got dressed and left the penthouse suit, leaving a disheveled and irritated former god alone with Sarah, who was watching cartoons in the living room. Loki scowled as he made himself a cup of coffee and then shuffled into the living room, placing the cup on a coaster and flopping unceremoniously onto the loveseat since Sarah was stretched out over the couch.

"Oh I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to take up the couch. I'll move--"

Loki held up a hand to silence her protests, closing his eyes and taking a steadying breath over his cup. The warmth of the coffee and the invigorating smell were already having an effect on his mood, but it would be a long time before it would completely abate, considering the soreness in his groin. He might be breaking the no-sex-while-Sarah's-here rule tonight, especially if Tony was going to be away all day when it was one of the few times Loki was actually off of work and available for a lazy day spent here or around the city.

Sarah eyed him as he drank his coffee, but did so furtively as she attempted to focus on the tv program. She still hadn't completely relaxed around him, but he hadn't had much of a chance to speak to her himself--nor had he particularly wanted to. He didn't necessarily care if she was frightened of him. She should be, in fact. But there was that nagging part of him that wanted her to feel at ease and hated the scared child he saw only around him, never with Tony.

"I won't bite your head off, you know. I'm still a highly trained killer but..." he trailed off, eyes flicking to the windows to the city beyond. "My godlihood, everything you should be truly frightened of," he gestured into the open air before sliding his gaze back and offering a bitter smile. "I'm practically harmless."

Sarah seemed to catch on to what he was saying without him actually having to state it outright. There was a small smile beginning and it abruptly brightened. "I doubt that," she said and Loki felt his smile growing in response. "Tony says you have magic. Or some kind of weird science thing. It depends on what he's been talking about."

Loki snorted. "He is endlessly frustrated by his inability to comprehend my magic. You should hear him rant about how everything I do should be impossible, how it breaks his puny little laws of physics. Really, mortals are so uncreative."

Sarah's grin was growing. Clearly she was going to tell Tony about this conversation later just to see the inventor sputter his protests. Oh he liked this girl. Too much. "Could you show me something? I mean, if it's not too much to ask."

He began to wonder just how much she knew about his magic. Did she know his was now limited to only a spark of what he'd been capable of before? "Well you've seen my illusion at the museum. Child's play, really. I learned how to make simple changes like that to my appearance when I was in my first century." Her eyes bugged a little at that and he knew she was itching to ask how old he was. He smiled a bit smugly to himself. "I suppose I could work a small conjuring spell," he mused. He concentrated on the image of the grapefruit he knew was in the bottom drawer of the fridge and after a moment, it appeared above his hand with a ripple of green, suspended in mid-air. He gave it a twirl before plucking it out of the air and tossing it once to assure her it was solid.

"Tony is always so keen to remind me that matter cannot be created nor destroyed. I quite agree, but if you'll check the bottom drawer of the fridge, you'll see that I did not create this fruit out of thin air, but summoned it from its location. My magic opens a sort of portal, if you will, and teleports the item to my immediate location."

The girl was staring at him in awe. "That's.....wow. That's... _awesome_."

Loki smiled and waved his hand, the grapefruit disappearing back to its original place. He took another deep draw from his coffee, slightly tired by the use of his magic. The prickle of it had faded to the faintest trace in his fingers and he knew that he wouldn't be able to perform anymore tricks for her at the moment. He hated this weakness, this depleted store of magic he was forced to rely on, but he supposed it could be worse. He could be stuck on this planet in his Jotun form, branded a freak and dragged off to some medical facility that even Tony couldn't break into for experimentation all in the name of science. Oh the things Tony's precious science had done over Midgard's rich and tumultuous history...

"What else can you do?" she asked excitedly, but Loki's patience had run out.

"I am not your personal magician to provide you with entertainment whenever you please, child," he said curtly, sullenly sipping at the cooling coffee as he agonized over his lost magic. He didn't think he would ever stop missing the feeling of that power rushing to his fingers, just waiting for his command.

The god and the girl spent the rest of the day lazing about the penthouse, mostly out of each other's way, but occasionally falling in together to watch a program on the television. Some small talk was exchanged, but Sarah never mentioned his magic again, nor anything that might constitute a personal question. It was early in the evening when Tony returned, storming out of the elevator clutching something in his hand and a dark expression on his face.

"Did you see this?" he asked Loki in an incredulous voice.

"No, I have not. Sarah and I have not left the apartment all day," he answered, concerned by the livid set of Tony's jaw.

The engineer crumpled the newspaper in his hand further before tossing it at Loki and whirling to lean against the bar. Loki opened the paper to see a picture of Tony and the girl on the front of a tabloid, a bright headline reading "Return of the International Playboy?" Tony's arm was slung around her shoulders, both wearing sunglasses, but he could tell by Tony's expression in the picture that he had not been happy. Likely trying to usher her out of the private eye rather than enjoying a private moment as the tabloid suggested.

"Why do you even pay attention to this useless drivel?" he asked disapprovingly and tossed the paper onto the coffee table.

Sarah came down the hall then and glanced between the tense engineer and the rather upset-looking god, instantly wary. She slid into a seat and spotted the paper, snatching it up quickly and groaning. Then she read a smaller headline and gasped. "I am not a prostitute!" she cried out in dismay.

Loki snorted. "It is a tabloid, a Midgardian invention to entrap celebrities and provide entertainment for the bored, pathetic people incapable of understanding real news. Ignore it."

Tony spun around then. "No! I'm not going to just ignore it, Loki. That's my goddamn reputation they are smearing--not to mention Sarah's. They don't know a damned thing about her or about what she's been through and now they're dragging her into some media circus like one of their goons. This fucking ends today!"

The god sighed and got up from the couch to draw a trembling Tony into his arms. "Tomorrow, love. We'll talk to the press tomorrow and set things straight." He stroked the genius' hair and used the last traces of his magic to soothe tensed muscles. "Sarah, I suggest that you tell us everything we may need to know to prevent this from becoming worse."


End file.
